Vintage sanpro: anyone remember giant towels with loops and belts?

Oh shit, zombie.

I started my periods in the late sixties and we’ll remember the belts with the loops and the bulky pads. I think I started using tampax by the mid seventies. My Mum found out and was horrified because that meant I wouldn’t be a virgin on my wedding night.

Me too. I looked back and realised I'd already posted here

Oh didn’t realise this was a zombie thread. Gah.

I’m 46 and my mum had an old looped belt that she showed me - she definitely didn’t suggest I use it though! I started my period around the time the shaped Bodyform pads came out - IIRC I used them for about 2-3 years before Always were launched and everyone got the new ultra-thin pads with wings, etc. My mum was very helpful and very modern in outlook, and I had lots of sisters, so I was well informed and she just got me whatever pads I wanted.

I remember carrying a little bag with my Bodyform pads in my school bag, with tissues and spare pants in case. I didn’t mind the Bodyform pads - they were weirdly comforting in some undefinable way - but I developed a system of wearing one pair of knickers with the pad in, with the “wings” folded around, then another pair of knickers on top to keep the “wings” in place, and then my tights, just to keep everything secure.

My mum used non-applicator tampons and bought some for me to try, but I couldn’t get on with them at all. They hurt and I could feel them and they were very dry. It wasn’t until I discovered the applicator ones, and specifically the “Lite” ones, when I was 18, that I really got into using tampons - if I’d tried the applicator ones a bit earlier I’d have had a much more comfortable teenage experience. Once I started using tampons I used them almost exclusively until I had my DD in my 30s, and periods were much, much easier that whole time.

Or if they’d had period pants then! I bought some period pants a few years ago and they were a revelation. If they had been around when I was a teenager, how much easier it would all have been (but I always had quite a light flow so I would only have needed one pair of period pants per school day. I appreciate that they aren’t as ideal for heavy flow, or if you need to change them during the day).

DD is 11 so I’ve got her a little bag ready with a variety of different products for when she starts her period, plus a copy of Milli Hill’s book My Period which she’s already read. She’s quite small and sporty, though, and looks like starting her period is a year or two off yet.

Yes, but also, when my great uncle died, my mum tore up his brushed cotton nightshirts and told me to use those.

Oh, and SandraCD is the unusual poster who has revived this zombie thread.

so you don't do you! No one does.

I did! started periods 39 years ago.
I tried the stick on but there were no wings yet then and I flooded so much it always leaked over the sides of the pad which had invariably bunched up. I tried the belt and pads to help with that. It didn't. I just flooded regularly and bled all over my clothes all the time. It was awful. Medication helped slow the flow a little.

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I remember them, but I can’t imagine that there is a woman out there still actively using them.

@FlamingoAndJohn I remember them! I'm 58, and as a child my mum used them, so they were the first ones I used. But without the belt. Just the looped towels. The loops were a mystery to me! That was before, as I said above, moving on to the horrible netted ones.

Really? I can’t imagine there is a woman in the U.K. who is still of an age to be having periods who ever used looped towels.

Welcome to Mumsnet.
Google is your friend - or maybe where you last purchased some.

Yes remember these, I still wear them but where can I get them?

I wear sanitary towels with belt from front to back but finding it very hard to find where they are sold. Any ideas.

I wear towels with belt, but find it hard to get any recently. Any one know where I can purchase them in UK?

Winter that's right. There was a lot in the news late 70's/early 80's about toxic shock syndrome (on World in Action/Panorama type programmes). IIRC the advice was not to leave tampons in overnight. I remember being worried as I forgot once.

I think we get more chilled as we get older. I remember my mum going to a Fancy Dress party as a gangster, zootsuit, wearing a little moustache - and a tampon safety-pinned between her shoulder blades and a sign underneath it saying, “IT’S A STICK UP!”

I was absolutely mortified when I found out

My mum gave me my dead grandfather's old brushed cotton nightshirts to tear up and use. Bloody typical.
I remember that anything to do with periods mortified me. We had to drive past the Whites factory quite a lot and I used to be so embarrassed. Weird.

I'm in my fifties. I thought the not using tampons was because there was a load of publicity about toxic shock syndrome, maybe around 1975(?), which put off a lot of my schoolfriends from using them.

I remember Lillia.

Sounds like a song 🎵

I remember Dr Whites and the belt monstrosities. However, my dear stepmother found a cheaper sanitary towel and I had to use them. They alwayed chaffed the top of my legs and I used to have to rub vaseline on the sores.
Does anyone remember the brand Lillia in the late 60s early 70s?
I hated them and secretly started buying lillets tampons when I was about 15.

Nearly 50 here. Dr white abs looped towels were around but actually thick pads were what was given. My mum used lil let’s but I never got to grips with them and used tampax from about 20-40 and then shock of shock I tried pads again and my period pain all but disappeared except on day 2.

I still think with disposables versus wash your own the environmental impact is put on women rather than work load and ease. Same with nappies.

I went to biodegrade ones (pads) and then thought £3 for a pack versus £0.89 is shocking same on nappies.

With pads thinking the water, drying, washing powder is not so environmentally friendly. I shouldn’t have the environmental impact guilted on to me.

I really wish for a day when we as women are provided for it as a medical need rather than a choice. Ie free through collection at gp.

They were awful. The first time I had to wear a Dr Whites I felt like I had a huge pillow between my legs. The belts were fiddly and the towel would stick to you sometimes. You were so uncomfortable you'd nearly be in tears by the time you got home. We didn't have school dinners so we walked to and from twice a day.

No incinerators at our old Victorian school so we had to take our 'dirties' home concealed in a brown paper bag at the bottom of our satchels. Grim. They were bulky and we'd feel so self-conscious at PE - would other people see? It was probably a good thing that it was an all girls' school. I dread to think how it is today with adolescent boys around. My generation was brought up to feel ashamed of what is perfectly normal. Thank goodness times have changed.